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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209021">Trust Fall</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliaoftwoworlds/pseuds/aliaoftwoworlds'>aliaoftwoworlds</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales from Tolsar [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, continuation of a series, little bit of fluff little bit of angst, very brief mention of Tony with powers (but not his own), wanted some Tony and Loki bonding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:21:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,878</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23209021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliaoftwoworlds/pseuds/aliaoftwoworlds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A recently crowned Tony goes on a diplomatic mission with Loki as an advisor. Things don’t exactly go according to plan—as seems to be the norm for Tony, no matter which planet he’s on—but at least he’s in surprisingly good company.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales from Tolsar [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1307891</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>68</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>232</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hey all, so more chapters of Snapshots are planned and going to be written, including several that take place between the beginning of that story and this one. But I wanted to get started on this one too, and it’s not like it’s spoiling anything for those who have read the rest of the series; you all know Tony will end up as the Tolsaran King. This one is directly in line with Moving Day and Snapshots, the “main canon” of this series, and takes place shortly after Tony is elected.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If he were honest, Tony was more than a little wary of this trip.</p>
<p>He always tried to be appropriately cautious and responsible going into any unknown situation now that he was at the head of an entire planet, of course. Sometimes he couldn’t believe how responsible he’d become. </p>
<p>Well, it wasn’t as though the change had happened overnight. Rhodey told him that’s how it should be, that his old self would have made a terrible king—he absolutely agreed—but he’d slowly changed into someone who could handle that job, and it had started before they’d left Earth.</p>
<p>Sometimes he thought, with a mix of bitterness and odd satisfaction, that the hell he’d gone through with the Avengers was good for him. It made him into a stronger person, able to deal with the kinds of difficulties he’d face in this sort of leadership position. It certainly taught him to be able to hold his tongue and tamp down the sarcasm around assholes that he secretly hated but had to pretend to respect. A habit he’d almost have felt guilty for as King, except that Amilie had confessed that she did the same thing all the time.</p>
<p>He’d never thought of himself as cowardly; in the old days, he was brave to the point of reckless, usually throwing himself into danger without a second thought. Now, he was more cautious, but still willing to face difficult situations and explore new, potentially dangerous territory.</p>
<p>Still, this mission was making him feel… something not too great. He’d call it nerves, but it was more like a bad feeling in his gut, the kind that didn’t make sense but should usually be trusted. He could hardly call it off, however, tell Amilie that he’d abandoned this important opportunity, because of a gut feeling.</p>
<p>Maybe it was the prospect of being the head of these negotiations. Not that he hadn’t made plenty of business deals in his past, and been damn good at it, and he’d had the entirety of his company to worry about at the time. That wasn’t too different from having a planet depending on him. </p>
<p>Still, so far most of his important actions and deals as King had been made with the Queen present and working with him. As she’d been elected several years before him, she both took the lead in most actions and was generally viewed as the first in charge, at least until he was well-established enough in his role to earn his title.</p>
<p>But they couldn’t both be present for everything, particularly when it was off-planet. Amilie was busy with the tail end of a project she’d been overseeing for the last two months, and so when the Dekunt reached out and offered to meet, it fell to Tony to make the trip.</p>
<p>He wasn’t traveling alone, of course. It might be construed as rude to not have representatives of both leaders of the planet at this important first meeting, and so one of Amilie’s advisors, skilled in trade and negotiation, accompanied Tony in her stead. An advisor with some basic knowledge of the planet they were traveling to, as well as the keen skills to handle any trouble they might encounter.</p>
<p>Tony didn’t have a problem with Loki, really. He’d long since accepted their explanation of his… <em>circumstances of duress</em> during the New York invasion. Tony himself had gotten a new start on Tolsar and tried his best to give both Thor and Loki the same chance when the Asgardians showed up. Besides, their home had been destroyed and more than half of their people slaughtered. According to Thor—and all the rest of them—Loki had come back to help them even when he had no real obligation to them. That seemed pretty significant to Tony. He sure as hell understood constantly feeling like you were subverting negative expectations, trying to make up for past mistakes, ones that had cost people their lives.</p>
<p>But that didn’t mean it wasn’t a little awkward to be traveling alone with Loki. Most of their interactions since the Asgardians’ arrival on Tolsar had had the buffer of others between them, usually Amilie or Thor. And while Tony could joke and snark with Loki in relative privacy back on Tolsar, he wasn’t quite sure how they would fit into their roles here as King and Advisor to the Queen.</p>
<p>He couldn’t deny that sometimes he felt a little ridiculous being the leader of two near-immortal beings. Thor and Loki both seemed to have great respect for Tolsar and therefore for Tony’s earned position, but it didn’t stop Tony from sometimes feeling like they were just humoring him. They were both ages older than him, with powers he couldn’t come close to matching. Even with his ability to resonate with Amilie and share a tiny portion of her abilities, he knew both Loki and Thor could wipe the floor with him if they really wanted to when it came to magic and superhuman abilities.</p>
<p>Thor, of course, was generally busy with his own people. Having taken over the warriors of Asgard as a military force contracted to Tolsar, he essentially had free reign over most of them—appropriate, since he was eventually going to take his place as their own King when they found and settled a new planet—only reporting to and dealing with Amilie and Tony occasionally. Their interactions were amicable, but mostly businesslike. Thor had been present during Tony’s dramatic exit from Earth and seemed to understand Tony’s desire not to mention the Avengers or much of their shared history. On Tolsar, Thor stuck to current issues and was too busy dealing with his warriors to reminisce about terrible times past, anyway.</p>
<p>Loki, on the other hand, had refused to join the army of Asgardians, and instead integrated into regular Tolsaran society. Some of the other non-warrior Asgardians had wanted him to lead them, Tony knew, but Loki had declined. He confessed to Tony and Amilie once, in a rare and somewhat surprising moment of vulnerability, that he didn’t quite feel that the others trusted him yet, and sometimes still struggled with feeling like an outsider among his people. While he’d come back to fight for them and now considered himself Asgardian once again, he still wanted a bit of distance.</p>
<p>Tony thought it was admirable that he was willing to maintain ties with them, moreso the more he learned about Loki’s upbringing and childhood in general. Loki becoming an advisor to Amilie, in large part because of his skill with and knowledge of magic—for which he was bullied and ostracized for much of his life on Asgard—seemed to Tony to be righting a wrong in the universe.</p>
<p>All in all, what it meant was that Tony’s relationship with Loki was complicated. They’d gone from random enemies to awkward acquaintances living on the same planet to official roles intertwined with each other in a matter of a few meetings and interactions. Tony felt like they both knew a slightly uncomfortable level of personal detail about the other, considering how little they actually <em>knew</em> each other. He hadn’t spent nearly enough time around Loki to work through any of that yet. And it wasn’t that Tony didn’t trust Loki to do his job, but on a mission this uncertain, he would have preferred to be with someone he was more used to working with.</p>
<p>But the Dekunt were a flighty, secretive people, hiding out on their home planet of Dentrun and only venturing out for the occasional odd trade. They were supposedly collectors of a vast array of strange artifacts from around the galaxy, and were fascinated by magical objects and beings, seeking knowledge and understanding of them despite having no innate magical abilities of their own. Tony and his partner would need their wits about them for this visit, and having a powerful magic user as that accompaniment couldn’t hurt.</p>
<p>Visitors to the planet of Dentrun were exceedingly rare, usually only invited when the Dekunt were negotiating a particularly important trade. That, or trading away something they already owned, which was so rare as to not have been done within several human lifetimes, as far as anyone in the galaxy knew. Visitors were restricted to only a small area of the planet and were never allowed to see the place where the Dekunt stored their hoarded treasures—anything for trade was brought out and shown individually.</p>
<p>The Asgardians had traded with the Dekunt a few times in the past, according to both Thor and Loki, though neither brother had ever been present for any of the trades. They knew very little about the Dekunt, but still more than Amilie or Tony, hence why Loki was now accompanying Tony here.</p>
<p>Tony wasn’t sure how worried to be about this. Loki had warned that the Dekunt were strange and shifty, likely to be sly and try to find ways to trick Tony into agreeing to things he wouldn’t want, or worse deals on his part. He was used to that from years of business, however.</p>
<p>What he wasn’t sure about was how wary to be of the planet itself and its inhabitants. Loki seemed genuinely scared of the prospect of going to Dentrun when it was first suggested. After some prompting, he told Amilie and Tony about the stories Asgardians passed down regarding the planet. </p>
<p>The Dekunt, supposedly, lived above the surface of the planet, in structures suspended in the air with the help of the natural landscape. The rumors Loki had heard spoke of gigantic creatures on the surface of the planet, the Kuntun, that were the sort of horror story told to scare children at bedtime. The Kuntun were intelligent beasts, according to legend, that roamed the surface and pounced on anything—or anyone—unlucky enough to fall from the cities above, tormenting whatever they captured before tearing it apart barbarically. What seemed to scare Loki the most about these things were the rumors that the Kuntun were immune to the effects of magic, and that anyone who upset the Dekunt would be thrown from the dwellings to be devoured below.</p>
<p>Since the Dekunt weren’t the type to share details of their planet, no one really knew how much of this was true. Rumors tended to be exaggerated the more they were spread around, so Tony took all of this with a grain of salt. Still, Loki’s genuine worry seemed to be that the residents of the planet were in fact resistant to the effects of magic and therefore most of his own talents would not be of use if something were to go wrong.</p>
<p>Tony stood at the front of the ship—though the ship was mostly piloting itself—thinking about all this and watching as they slowly approached Dentrun, when a voice spoke up behind him.</p>
<p>“Anthony.”</p>
<p>Tony turned, raising an eyebrow expectantly. He didn’t bother telling Loki yet again that he could call him Tony; he’d given up on that a while ago. While most of the Tolsarans called him Anthony because he had been crowned using his full name, those who knew him well—particularly those who’d known him before on Earth, namely Rhodey, Amilie, and Thor—still called him Tony. Loki, however, seemed to like his full name for whatever reason, be it formality, a desire to be contrary, or just some kind of aesthetic preference, so Tony let him use it. It didn’t bother him. If anything, it might become something of a <em>thing</em> between them, Loki as the only one of Tony’s friends who called him by his full name, which was a thought that made Tony smile inwardly. He wouldn’t mind being friends with Loki, he thought.</p>
<p>For now, they remained allies and colleagues, for lack of a better word. And they were on a potentially dangerous trip, which was why Tony tore his gaze away from the muddy brown surface of Dentrun easily when Loki spoke his name, and straightened his posture when he saw the serious look on Loki’s face. “Something wrong?”</p>
<p>Loki hesitated a moment, looking like he wasn’t sure whether he should say something. After gazing out at the approaching planet for a moment himself, however, he turned back to Tony. “I should tell you, it is also uncertain whether the natural materials of the Dekunt’s planet may be harmful to beings from other worlds.”</p>
<p>Tony frowned at that. “You mean like air we can’t breathe?”</p>
<p>“No, we’ve been assured their air is breathable for us, and on the few occasions they’ve visited other worlds such as Asgard, they have had no problems with our atmosphere. What I am concerned about is physical touch.”</p>
<p>“You think something there might be, what, poisonous for us to touch?”</p>
<p>Loki looked contemplative. “Likely not anything mundane, the paths we will walk or any sort of furniture we touch, but anything <em>unusual</em>… It’s better if you avoid touching anything unless I do so first. The same with eating or drinking anything they offer.”</p>
<p>“Are you giving me an order?” Tony said, letting a smirk play over his face. While he indeed thought of Loki as much more of an equal than a subordinate in any manner, and valued his input, he couldn’t resist teasing him.</p>
<p>Loki didn’t smile back, but the look in his eyes told Tony he understood the sentence was just in jest. He did continue seriously, “Asgardians are more resistant to most things that would affect your… <em>fragile</em> mortal body, after all.”</p>
<p>Tony chuckled. “Well, if you’re willing to touch and lick all the weird stuff first so I don’t have to, who am I to argue?” Loki made a face at Tony’s choice of words.</p>
<p>“By the way, don’t think I won’t make you pay for that ‘fragile’ comment later,” Tony added, finally getting a smile out of Loki.</p>
<p>“Twenty minutes to landing,” Loki said, turning his attention to the displays at the helm. “Best to get ready.”</p>
<p>Tony nodded. “Yep. Time to get ready to rock and roll.” He turned, hiding his smile as he could practically hear Loki frowning, puzzling over that one. It was going to be an interesting day.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The ship touched down on the landing pad it was directed to by signals from Dentrun, and Tony and Loki wasted no time exiting. Loki was dressed in his typical blue and silver advisor’s outfit. Tony had donned a shorter, but still somewhat formal, traveling cloak over a comfortable outfit and his simple crown. Amilie assured him the formal look was usually a good one for negotiations. It had taken him at least a month to get used to wearing a crown, and to stop wanting to laugh over Amilie’s Lord of the Rings-inspired formalwear, but he did have to admit it made a statement, particularly their cloaks made of Anbarrian material that shifted colors and patterns continuously. His inner child—and nerd, according to Rhodey, who absolutely did not get a vote—also appreciated the way the light fabric of the cloak moved behind him when he walked. Okay, so he liked the getup. </p>
<p>He’d seen pictures of the Dekunt, of course; as little as they left their planet, they still did so, and people were always curious. Still, no picture quite did justice to the feeling they inspired in Tony as he and Loki exited their ship and walked toward their welcoming committee.</p>
<p>Tony still hadn’t killed the habit of trying to compare fundamentally alien things to familiar things from Earth. The Dekunt looked something like gigantic praying mantises to him. They towered several feet over the humanoid Tony and Loki, each supported on four long, spindly legs ending in feet with two split claws. They had four arms, he supposed they could be called, ending in something resembling hands with four long, spindly claw-like fingers each. They had no significant center of mass to really call a body, just a collection of thin appendages and connecting parts. </p>
<p>They did, at least, have visible heads with eyes that Tony could focus on when talking—he’d encountered eyeless species on Tolsar and in other places by now, but he still never quite knew where to look. Tony focused upward on those eyes as he approached the group waiting for them and gave a short, polite bow, seeing Loki do the same next to him from the corner of his eye.</p>
<p>“King Anthony of Tolsar,” one of them said, “we welcome your presence on Dentrun.”</p>
<p>Tony kept eye contact with the Dekunt he was standing in front of, hoping that was the one talking to him. There wasn’t any visible movement of a mouth when they spoke, and the voice that came through his translator seemed to come from every direction, like he was immersed in a field of sound. It was possible he was, actually, since different species communicated in different ways.</p>
<p>He concluded that it had been the one in front of him talking when that one turned to face Loki and the same voice spoke again. “And Loki, in place of Queen Amilie. We received her regrets and your name. You are an Asgardian, are you not?”</p>
<p>There was just the tiniest hesitation before Loki answered, and Tony focused in immediately. Tony might not know Loki all that well yet, but he knew political maneuvering and uncomfortable business dealings inside and out. Loki’s body language and the slightly slower than usual way he responded, like he was carefully thinking over every word before letting it leave his mouth, spoke of an abundance of caution and a desire not to make any wrong move. “Yes, I am one of two sons of Odin, the previous King of Asgard.”</p>
<p>The high and reedy voice that Tony’s translator chose for the Dekunt came again. “We heard what happened to Asgard. What a terrible loss.”</p>
<p>“It was indeed,” was Loki’s short reply. He inclined his head in a manner that, on the surface, looked like a gesture of respect to the lost people of Asgard. Tony, however, immediately interpreted what Loki was trying to tell him silently. <em>They aren’t talking about the people of Asgard. They’re talking about its treasures.</em></p>
<p>Tony had been in plenty of business meetings and deals with shady, nasty people who clearly treated their employees like replaceable garbage and didn’t care if anyone under them suffered so long as they made a profit. He’d also been in plenty with people who weren’t outright vultures preying on their lower-class workers, but who’d clearly turn around and backstab their own mothers in a heartbeat if it meant getting ahead, who had no sense of fairness in a negotiation whatsoever.</p>
<p>He was starting to get that sense already, here. Not so much directly from the Dekunt themselves—though their appearance activated some primal, frightened instincts in him and the rumors about them were sometimes less than pleasant, he didn’t want to judge them too much right off the bat—but from Loki’s reaction to them. He trusted Loki’s instincts here and the serious caution he was displaying set Tony on edge. He recalled one of their conversations on the flight over.</p>
<p>
  <em>“They won’t give up their secrets easily. They want to know what you have to bargain with before they reveal anything of their own, and they will try to trick you into offering more and more before ever offering anything in return.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Tony, thinking of some of his own ventures in the past, recognized the pattern with some distaste. “Great, so it’s like being back on Earth.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Loki raised an eyebrow. “I doubt anything out here is very similar to Earth—” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“—Negotiations with someone who would drain you dry with a smile on their face and then expect you to thank them for the opportunity? Plenty of experience with it,” Tony said. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Loki looked impressed against his will. “Well then, naturally, you know to tread lightly around them.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>“I’ve got it,” Tony said, waving a hand. “Don’t show them your whole hand until you’ve seen theirs. Flatter them without revealing too much, act like you’re very impressed by them but not so much that you’d be too far beneath them to have anything to offer.”</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Loki inclined his head. “You could have taken the Silver Tongue title back on Asgard, if you are truly so proficient in these matters,” he said, and Tony couldn’t quite figure out if that was meant to be a compliment or not.</em>
</p>
<p>Now, seeing how cautious Loki was with even revealing anything about himself or Asgard, Tony reevaluated their previous conversation. He’d thought that Loki’s warnings applied only to the actual negotiations with the Dekunt, but now he was beginning to feel that he should keep even small personal details close to the chest. Who knew how they could be used.</p>
<p>“If you’ll come this way, we can move somewhere more comfortable to speak,” another of the Dekunt said. Thankfully, Tony’s translator gave this one a slightly lower-pitched voice, different enough to the first one that he thought he could probably tell which was speaking. He didn’t fail to notice that the Dekunt made no effort to introduce themselves.</p>
<p>Tony tried not to let anything show on his face when the Dekunt turned to walk away, leading them down the paths. The way they moved was viscerally unsettling to him, like lithe and unusually graceful spiders, yet jointed in all the wrong places. Tony tried to keep his attention on their surroundings so as to repress the urge to shudder when he watched them walk.</p>
<p>He looked around with interest as they moved away from the landing platform. From space, Dentrun appeared a fairly uniform muddy brown, and now he could see why. There were no oceans on the planet, or any large bodies of water at all, according to the scanners on the ship. All of the water on the planet was underground and found in small deposits inside the plant life and mineral structures.</p>
<p>The scanners didn’t reveal much about the surface of the planet, several hundred feet below them. There was some kind of interference from the Dekunt cities spread over the tops of the supporting structures. The paths they were now walking, the low buildings he could see, and even the Dekunt themselves all seemed to be shades of brown. The brightest thing on the planet was the gleaming silver Tolsaran ship behind them. Even the metals the Dekunt used were brushed to a burnt copper color rather than shining and bright.</p>
<p>The natural structures that supported the cities this high in the air could be called trees, but that was a bit of a stretch. They were mineral bases that did support some kind of plant life, according to the ship’s scanners, but if anything, they resembled gigantic, very dangerous cacti more than any tree Tony had ever seen. From the air, they appeared to be essentially large spikes sticking up hundreds or thousands of feet from the ground. The Dekunt dwellings were built on and around these spikes.</p>
<p>As they walked by on the paths, Tony could see that up close, the larger structures were covered in smaller spikes, which stuck out horizontally like huge cactus needles. He didn’t want to imagine accidentally walking into one. Or worse, falling from one of the pathways and crashing into any of them on the way down. Some of them angled upward, perfect for impaling anyone unfortunate enough to tumble down toward them.</p>
<p>They walked for perhaps ten minutes in silence, with no attempt at small talk from either side, before they came to a clear cluster of Dekunt dwellings. Here, the buildings stretched above and below the paths on several levels, climbing over one another and intertwining in a way that had a certain pleasing aesthetic to it, Tony thought. </p>
<p>The lack of regular visitors to the planet was obvious here—the structures were fully alien, with no way Tony could see for people like himself and Loki to move to the upper or lower levels. As he scanned the city, he noted the shadows of movement on the supporting structures and upon closer inspection, could see the spindly forms of the Dekunt climbing up and down between levels in the distance. They moved up and down the giant spikes with ease thanks to their natural forms, and they blended in so well that Tony could barely see them.</p>
<p>Tony also noted that there was no sign of very advanced technology or transportation. He’d suspected from the beginning that most of the Dekunt civilization was far away from the small area where they allowed visitors. He knew they were capable of advanced space travel, but showed no signs of it within this sparsely populated visitors’ section. Concealing their hand, indeed.</p>
<p>As expected by this point, they got to the meaningless small talk once they finally stopped inside one of the buildings and met with another two Dekunt—again, going unnamed. Tony wondered whether they were taking ‘not revealing information’ to an extreme, or whether they really didn’t have personal names that would translate to outsiders. He’d met at least one species like that before, he knew it was possible, but it was usually found among those who communicated entirely without sound at all, that or telepathically.</p>
<p>He was greeted as “King Anthony” again and shown formal, if slightly stiff, respect from the Dekunt. Tony couldn’t tell how much of it was their discomfort with having outsiders in their space and how much was just their very alien mannerisms and the way his translator chose to create their voices.</p>
<p>“We have always had great respect for Tolsar,” the one who seemed to be in charge of the negotiations said, “though we have never traded with them in the past. Asgard, of course, was an excellent trade partner, before its unfortunate destruction.”</p>
<p>The way they spoke about trade with Asgard as though it wasn’t very long ago, when according to Thor and Loki it hadn’t been done in at least a hundred years, made Tony wonder suddenly how long the Dekunt lived. Tony had gotten used to the wildly differing lifespans of aliens by now, but it did sometimes make him feel odd, being surrounded by people to whom his entire life was practically the blink of an eye.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Tony said with a nod. “I admit we don’t know much about Dentrun. The construction of your buildings is very interesting, the suspension above the surface. I’ve never been on a planet quite like this one.”</p>
<p>“If we may ask, where do you come from, King Anthony? You’re not an Asgardian.”</p>
<p>Tony saw Loki glance at him. The urge not to reveal anything personal was still there, but he couldn’t see a way out of answering the question without being rude. Besides, he reasoned to himself, maybe he was overreacting. He’d told plenty of people plenty about Earth before; there was no reason he couldn’t do the same for the Dekunt.</p>
<p>“I come from Earth, a planet far off the core galactic ring.”</p>
<p>The Dekunt speaking to him made a strange, high-pitched sort of whistling noise that Tony thought might have been a sort of thoughtful hum. “We have never heard of Earth.”</p>
<p>Tony smiled. “It’s… not an incredibly well-established planet. They aren’t part of any galactic alliance or trade agreement, and in fact they don’t even have the capability of advanced, independent interplanetary flight yet.” He cringed inwardly and tried to keep his face neutral while he silently cursed himself for saying too much. It wasn't necessary to tell them that. He was trying to strike a balance between being a friendly, non-judgmental diplomat and heeding Loki's warnings and caution around these people, but it was harder than anticipated. How did he make small talk while not revealing anything about himself, without looking like a rude asshole? This wasn't Earth, where there were safe topics he could divert to that he knew would keep people's attention away from him.</p>
<p>Even with the very alien voices the translator chose for the Dekunt, he could hear their surprise. “How does someone from so… underdeveloped a planet end up on Tolsar?”</p>
<p>Here was another area where Tony didn’t need Loki’s surreptitious glance to remind him to be careful. “Well, on Earth I was well-known as something of a visionary, and a genius. I suppose even despite our less than advanced technology, I managed to catch the eye of Queen Amilie. She reached out to me and gave me the chance to prove my potential to the council of Tolsar that would grant me the offer of citizenship.”</p>
<p>He hoped they wouldn’t ask more about why Amilie would have been looking at such a faraway, undeveloped planet. Very few people knew about Amilie being from another reality and knowing Tony from her own world. That wasn’t a secret he was about to give up, never mind that it wasn’t his own secret to reveal in the first place.</p>
<p>Thankfully, they didn’t question him further on that. “It must have been a difficult transition, from a planet like Earth to one like Tolsar,” one of the others said.</p>
<p>Tony nodded. “It definitely was. I had to learn pretty much everything all over again, from politics to technology. It’s all different in the connected galaxy than it was back on Earth. But it was a great challenge, and I was eventually able to learn and even improve on Tolsaran technology—that’s where my expertise lies.”</p>
<p>The Dekunt seemed interested at that. “Then you must truly seek out knowledge and understanding, to have improved so much as to be elected as a ruler of Tolsar. We are very much the same. Our people value new knowledge and the eternal quest to learn more about the universe around us.”</p>
<p>They passed a while talking about the quest for new knowledge, a subject Tony could certainly jump on with enthusiasm. Talking about tech was safer and easier than talking about Earth, and the conversation flowed much more naturally. Loki contributed just enough to the conversation to be polite and not look like he was disinterested, but Tony could tell that he was still tense. </p>
<p>The Dekunt noticed Tony’s interest in the surroundings and the planet and divulged a few—noticeably basic, but Tony appreciated it nonetheless—details about their planet and the construction of their buildings. They moved out and between a couple of the buildings, walking along a few more suspended pathways as the Dekunt explained the process of laying down new paths before construction could begin on dwellings.</p>
<p>They walked along a long, wide path, Tony and Loki side by side on one side while three of the Dekunt moved single file along the other side. There were no railings or barriers at the edges of the paths, so Tony made sure to keep at least a foot of distance between himself and the edge. The Dekunt, he supposed, didn’t need any sort of railings to keep them from falling over the edges, not with those long, grasping limbs. He wondered, in fact, whether they usually climbed along the sides or even the underside of the paths instead of walking across the top the way they were doing now to accommodate their guests.</p>
<p>They were just passing beneath the shadow of one of the massive, spiked support structures when there was a <em>crack</em> overhead. Tony looked up immediately, to see that one of the spikes protruding from the gigantic structure, three feet long and coming to a deadly point at one end, had broken off about fifteen feet above his head and was falling directly toward him.</p>
<p>Tony reacted immediately, without thinking. Before his brain had even fully processed the danger, he was reaching out with his senses. The months of training with Amilie had made it almost instantaneous. He could feel her power, the thread of his stable connection to her—weak at this distance, but still there—innately present within him. It didn’t take any conscious thought to let that power flow within him, reaching out with that newly trained sense.</p>
<p>He could feel the air around him, the solid structures he stood on and next to. He felt the moving, breathing life of Loki and the Dekunt next to him, but most importantly, the solid, physical structure of the falling spike coming towards him. He reached out with his borrowed power and surrounded that physical structure.</p>
<p>If it were Amilie, she’d have grabbed hold of the thing itself, using her power to take hold of the very molecules that made up its structure. But complex items were more difficult to manipulate, and Tony had only begun to gain some tenuous control over them recently. This far away from Amilie, his resonance was weaker and he could only stick to the basics. The raw elements were easier to control, and using the air immediately surrounding the spike to move it was simpler for him than taking hold of the thing itself.</p>
<p>He’d already slowed its descent enough not to be dangerous by the time his hand raised up above his head. He didn’t really need to move his limbs, but it helped him focus and concentrate power, and Amilie said it helped with the flow of energy through and out of the body. He used that focus to push the spike to the side, keeping it from landing on him, and lower it slowly to the path behind them.</p>
<p>The brief exertion of energy didn’t tire him at all, but it did set something a little uneasy in his stomach to feel how weak his connection was at this distance. They knew it was a distinct possibility, of course, that he wouldn’t be able to resonate at all this far away, no matter how much he’d been connecting to Amilie recently. He should have been grateful that he had access to her powers at all, and he was, but he didn’t like the feeling of being severely weakened in that sense. He hated feeling vulnerable.</p>
<p>Not that he was in any real danger, of course, at least from this. If he hadn’t managed to take hold of the spike with his own powers when he did, he was sure that Loki would have protected him. And speaking of Loki, as if suddenly remembering he was there, Tony turned to meet Loki’s wide eyes. At first, Tony thought his clear surprised fear was over the sudden danger, but when the Dekunt moved behind him and Loki tensed, Tony realized his fear was of their hosts.</p>
<p>The Dekunt were moving to surround Tony and Loki where they stood. One swept the spike, now lying harmlessly on the path behind Tony, off the edge, letting it fall. They were making a series of high-pitched clicking and whistling sounds that his translator either didn’t or couldn’t turn into anything he could understand. He lowered his hand to the side, taking a step back from the Dekunt instinctively and tensing slightly, ready to raise his hand again to defend himself if necessary. As a sign of respect, he’d come to Dentrun unarmed, but he could still resonate, weak as it was, and he would fight if he had to.</p>
<p>The Dekunt made no offensive moves. Tony noticed, though, that they didn’t seem very concerned for his safety. “A fortunate move,” the one closest to him said, their tone high and excited. “But not an ability we expected. That was not magic as we have studied it before.”</p>
<p>Even right in plain sight of the Dekunt, Loki gave Tony a warning look, and another conversation of theirs came to mind immediately.</p>
<p><em>“It’s best not to tell them of any… unusual abilities unless absolutely necessary,” Loki said carefully. At Tony’s confused look, he added, “There are rumors… none proven, of course, but enough, and consistent enough, to be worth believing… that interesting pieces of equipment, and more importantly, interesting</em> people, <em>sometimes… disappear around the Dekunt.”</em></p>
<p>Tony had taken the warning into consideration, of course, not outright dismissing it. Rumors were just rumors, but they were usually based on something, and it was better to be more cautious than less. And it really wouldn’t change anything, either, or so he’d thought; he had no plans to reveal anything about Amilie’s powers or his ability to resonate, nor personal details about where she came from or her unique circumstances.</p>
<p>It seemed now, however, that his intentions meant nothing. He’d revealed that power, and he couldn’t get out of answering this. He hadn’t expected the Dekunt to be able to tell that his powers—Amilie’s—were different from the sort of magic Loki would use, and he couldn’t think up a convincing enough lie on the spot. Amilie was hundreds of light years away on Tolsar, anyway, and could take care of herself well enough. Though Tony wouldn’t want to be responsible for word of her unique abilities getting out, the Dekunt were secretive enough that the knowledge shouldn’t be going beyond this planet, at the very least.</p>
<p>“No, it’s not ordinary magic,” Tony answered cautiously, catching Loki’s eye and looking away quickly.</p>
<p>“We have never encountered any such power before,” the Dekunt still sounded too excited for Tony’s taste. “We would very much like to learn more about this. Any potential trade partner is a source for new learning.”</p>
<p>Tony had to admit, they were good. The careful reminder of the reason they were there, just the right amount of manipulation. “I really can’t tell you too much about it,” Tony said carefully. “It’s not my power, my ability. It’s—borrowed.”</p>
<p>“How does one borrow another’s power?”</p>
<p>Tony glanced again at Loki, but looked away quickly from his tense, cautionary expression. He didn’t need the warning or the increased anxiety, but he still couldn’t see a way out of the explanation. “We call it resonance. The power is Queen Amilie’s. It can’t be shared by just anyone; it takes a personal connection and months of training to be able to share even the most basic power.” He was hoping that listing the clear limitations would lessen their interest.</p>
<p>Tony worried that this would derail the entire conversation and visit. That the Dekunt would insist that Amilie’s power be explained, that she come in person to negotiate and that they would accept nothing less to establish diplomatic ties with Tolsar.</p>
<p>However, after a few more short questions, in which Tony repeated pretty much the same vague answers, the Dekunt seemed to settle. They were clearly curious, and undoubtedly it would come up again, but they seemed to accept for now that Tony was reluctant to talk about things he felt weren’t his right to divulge. They backed off from the aggressive questions and instead resumed conversation directed toward more general things.</p>
<p>They began walking along the path again, talking about some of the basics of their two societies. While they were still withdrawn about some of their own secrets, so was Tony, and he couldn’t really blame them on that front. The more they talked, the more Tony relaxed.</p>
<p>The Dekunt seemed nice enough, and they shared a thirst for knowledge that Tony connected with. Like with meeting any new alien, soon enough their large, strange bodies and the unsettling way they moved stopped bothering him, just becoming another new feature of his life among very diverse species. </p>
<p>It occurred to him, at one point, that not all of Loki’s caution and hesitance might be entirely warranted. While Tony wasn’t stupid enough to dismiss Loki’s input or his warnings, Loki was a person too, able to be influenced by feelings and emotions. He’d grown up hearing cautionary tales about Dentrun and those must have colored his opinions of the Dekunt. The Dekunt were without doubt wily and cunning, and a little intimidating, but then, so were the Asgardians, to species like humans. </p>
<p>It also occurred to Tony that this was one of Loki’s first times going out solo as Amilie’s advisor. Tony was there, of course, but Loki was representing Amilie and her wishes here. He no doubt wanted to do well, and his personal history with ruling positions of any kind came with issues even larger than some of Tony’s. It was, in fact, possible that Loki was just as nervous about performing well on this trip as Tony himself.</p>
<p>Finally, after at least two hours of chatting, the Dekunt leading the conversation was the first to offer something substantial. “Our interest in trade with Tolsar did not spring out of nowhere, of course,” they said suddenly, leading in from a conversation about energy production. “We have heard of Queen Amilie’s interest in the Infinity Stones, and we have things of value to discuss with interested parties.”</p>
<p>The use of <em>interested parties</em> raised the hairs on the back of Tony’s neck, thinking of Thanos. The vague qualifier made it sound, no doubt purposely, as though they’d be perfectly willing to offer whatever it was they had to Thanos if Tolsar didn’t play ball. It was a bit of an underhanded tactic, Tony thought, but not something he was going to call them out on, at least not yet. He had no real way of knowing yet whether the threat was a bluff or not. </p>
<p>Many planets feared Thanos and his well-known quest for the Infinity Stones, thinking they would be destroyed or enslaved if Thanos came to their worlds. Yet there were also plenty willing to trade with and support him, either thinking they would be spared his wrath if they offered something of value, genuinely willing to support his insane mission, or simply so preoccupied with the potential profits that they didn’t care one bit about his crusade. If the Dekunt weren’t bluffing, and were willing to go to Thanos if Tolsar didn’t negotiate with them, Tony knew they’d fit firmly into the third category.</p>
<p>Still, whether the threat was real or not, the Dekunt had contacted Tolsar first, and Tony was grateful for that. At the very least, he wanted to see what it was they had to offer that apparently had something to do with the Infinity Stones. </p>
<p>Plenty of people knew by now that Amilie wanted to prevent Thanos from gaining all of the Stones and completing his mission. Some knew she eventually planned to confront him on the battlefield. But very few knew that she already had one neutralized Stone in her possession, or that she was capable of handling them.</p>
<p>They knew the locations of the Time and Mind Stones, of course; on Earth in the keeping of sorcerers and Vision, respectively. Xandar had given the Power Stone to Amilie and she had neutralized it. Asgard had, at one time, had control of both the Space and Reality Stones—the Tesseract and the Aether. But the Aether was now in the keeping of someone called the Collector out beyond the edges of civilization, and according to the few sources who knew anything about him, he was not someone to be messed with. With the destruction of Asgard, the Tesseract was lost and no one knew if Thanos had gotten his hands on it yet.</p>
<p>The biggest remaining mystery was the Soul Stone. In Amilie’s original world, Thanos had it by the time he attacked Earth, and no one—at least no one left alive when the battle was over and Thanos defeated—knew where or how he got it. It wasn’t exactly important at the time once Thanos had been killed, so Amilie never pursued it. Then, when she was accidentally thrown into another reality, she didn’t know where to start looking for it. So far, she’d heard a lot of vague rumors and nothing truly useful.</p>
<p>While the Stones were each incredibly powerful on their own, Thanos’s big plan required all six. Since Amilie was already in possession of the Power Stone and Thanos couldn’t use it, that plan couldn’t come to fruition in this reality. Of course, if he realized this, Thanos could still cause untold destruction with even a single Stone. </p>
<p>For that reason, the fact that Amilie had the Power Stone was kept very quiet. Only Tony, Rhodey, one or two of the leaders of Xandar, and a handful of others on Tolsar knew about it. Amilie had made her public focus into preparing armies and allies willing to fight Thanos. It was still a priority to keep an eye on the rest of the Stones and attempt to keep Thanos from getting them, naturally, since each one in his possession was not only a terrible and deadly weapon, but would make the eventual confrontation with him that much more difficult. But the search for the Stones was quieter.</p>
<p>However, Amilie would want to know about whatever it was the Dekunt thought they could contribute. With their secretive and hoarding nature, for all Tony knew, they were in possession of the actual Soul Stone. He was more cautious now, senses of anticipation and wariness heightened again from the more relaxed state they’d been lulled into by hours of conversation.</p>
<p>“Well, we are definitely a very interested party.”</p>
<p>He expected to have to do more, but was surprised when the Dekunt led him further into the twisting maze of buildings, declaring that they would show him what they had to offer.</p>
<p>Surprised… and suspicious. As polite as they had been so far, there was no doubt that the Dekunt were cunning, intelligent, and incredibly protective of their secrets. It seemed entirely unlikely that they would simply announce something as important as information about the Infinity Stones and then show him to whatever they had to offer without question, when he hadn’t so much as made mention of an offer in return.</p>
<p>He wondered if this would be when they’d bring up resonance again, demanding information about—or worse, some kind of impossible access to—Amilie’s abilities in exchange for some vital and hidden information about the Stones. Or perhaps even one of the Stones themselves, who knew?</p>
<p>The Dekunt led them into a wide, flat building made almost entirely of metal rather than the natural materials that made up the paths and a lot of the other buildings. It looked more industrial than what they’d seen so far, and when they stepped inside, Tony could see why.</p>
<p>It looked something like Tony’s old labs back on Earth, really. Lined floor to ceiling with equipment and technology, though much of it was alien. Wires, cables, and piping trailed from every corner of the room and all converged inward on the thing that took up most of the center of the place. It was gigantic, twenty feet tall and at least thirty in diameter, circular and alien. It almost reminded Tony of his father’s old arc reactor, but it glowed yellow instead of blue.</p>
<p>“We have spent lifetimes studying all the different types of energy in the universe,” one of the Dekunt said, making a gesture towards the centerpiece of the room, “including that of the Infinity Stones.”</p>
<p>Tony tried not to show how much that statement affected him. If they were implying that they had and were studying one of the Stones… that was dangerous. The type of dangerous that Tony wouldn’t be able to just leave and hope to come back with Amilie someday. He would have to do something about it while he was here.</p>
<p>“We have gathered items that have been touched by the Stones, taken readings in places they were used or kept, and studied tales of those who were able to wield them in the past.” Tony nodded, breathing an inward sigh of relief, though he kept his guard up. It sounded like they hadn’t gotten their hands on one, but they might just be concealing that from Tony.</p>
<p>“The Stones, I am sure you know, hold incredible power. They give a wielder the ability to destroy worlds, or remake them according to one’s own wishes.” There was something hungry in the Dekunt’s tone that Tony didn’t like.</p>
<p>Loki spoke up for the first time in a while at that, and Tony could hear the tension in his voice. “They’re also temperamental, and unable to be wielded by most beings in the galaxy. Most of those who try are destroyed instantly, and most of those who aren’t end up dead later anyway.”</p>
<p>That didn’t seem to disturb the Dekunt in the least. “Which is why harnessing their energy through technology is much better. They could be used to fuel armies, or to power cities. Think of the possibilities if we could keep them contained here, without anyone ever having to touch them.”</p>
<p>Tony was more disturbed than ever by the fervor in their voices. The Infinity Stones weren’t something to be trifled with, and anyone who talked about wanting to use their power was dangerous. Even the best intentions meant nothing when warped by the power of the Stones, and somehow Tony didn’t think the Dekunt had the best intentions in the first place.</p>
<p>He exchanged another uneasy glance with Loki. “And you think what you have here is capable of containing that energy?”</p>
<p>“It has been successful with our most powerful magical objects, and those that have encountered the Stones in the past. But we have not been able to test it on an actual Infinity Stone. That is why we contacted Tolsar.” Tony tensed involuntarily. Did they know that Amilie had the Power Stone? “Queen Amilie’s interest in the Stones has become known in many circles. If our technology to harness their power would be of use to someone who might potentially acquire one of the Stones in the future, we would be… amenable to an agreement, of sorts.”</p>
<p>Tony consciously relaxed his shoulders, making sure to pull them back into his usual businessman’s stance. Not that his stature or posture probably made any difference to aliens who towered over him by several feet, but it helped him ease more confidently into negotiation mode.</p>
<p>No doubt they wanted something substantial. If they really thought Amilie was close to gaining one of the Stones—or, more likely, they believed she was already in possession of one—then they wouldn’t simply give away technology they thought could contain its power.</p>
<p>With the way they talked about the Stones and using their power, they probably wanted some kind of share of that power. Tony felt no need to inform them that their technology wasn’t really that useful to Amilie, who had the power to contain the Stones on her own, but this was still something of interest, and something to keep an eye on. Anyone with the capability of containing the Stones was important.</p>
<p>And he still couldn’t be sure that the Dekunt didn’t have one of their own. He had no guarantee that they weren’t lying right to his face when they said they hadn’t been able to test it on one of the Stones yet. But he silently thanked every deity he didn’t believe in that they weren’t accusing Tolsar of hiding the Stones. That, or working with Thanos.</p>
<p>It was time to switch into negotiation mode. To start navigating the complicated maze of manipulations, careful lies, occasional truths, and outright bluffing that made up business deals and political maneuverings. He might not be the best at the alien small talk, but here was where he could shine.</p>
<p>He wasn’t King for nothing; time to get down to business.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Of course, the Tesseract is not actually “lost,” but that’s a secret Loki is still keeping to himself for now.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m not dead! I’m sorry for the crazy long wait, this story wasn’t going that well and I almost abandoned it, but inspiration sort of struck again and hey, if even one person is enjoying it then I’ll keep going. This chapter is super short, oops, but I’m not going to post it until I’m finished writing the next one, so it should be coming within a day of this one.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Somewhat to Tony’s disappointment, from the room containing the devices that could supposedly harness the power of an Infinity Stone, they didn’t move directly to any sort of discussions about it. Tony told himself it was a good thing; they weren’t actually here to try to trade or negotiate for anything yet, though of course they’d been ready for the possibility. This first visit, had everything gone according to plan, was really just meant to open up a relationship between the two planets.</p>
<p>That much, Tony was hoping he could do, at least. It seemed like the Dekunt would want some kind of promise or agreement before Tony and Loki could leave and regroup—not to mention report anything they discovered about the Stones here to Amilie so she could potentially deal with it—but Tony didn’t want to get ahead of himself.</p>
<p>Something about this planet was weirding him out. He kept saying things that he wanted to keep to himself. Every time, he chalked it up to nerves regarding his first solo mission, or the awkwardness of dealing with an entirely new and unknown species. But that didn’t make a lot of sense—he was usually good, or at least decent, under pressure. He’d been a leader most of his life, and it wasn’t like this was all that different from anything he’d done for SI, at least not in theory. Maybe he was just on edge because of the hungry way they’d questioned him about resonance and Amilie’s abilities.</p>
<p>Of course, some sort of planet-wide conspiracy or attempt to mess with him seemed pretty unlikely, too. The Dekunt were friendly enough so far, if a little disconcerting in the excited way they talked about harnessing energies that could wipe out planets. And Loki hadn’t said anything negative, just a few warning looks—granted, he hadn’t had much chance yet, because they hadn’t been alone together for even a moment.</p>
<p>After viewing the energy device, they were taken around some more of the outer pathways. Tony couldn’t stop himself from glancing up every time they passed another of the gigantic spiked structures, but there were no more incidents. At least his sense of suspicion was perfectly intact—he was having a hard time believing that had just been random chance. At war with that idea, though, was the part of him that couldn’t figure out what the motivation would be, if it wasn’t an accident. If the Dekunt didn’t want them here, they wouldn’t have invited them. If they just wanted to attack them for some reason, they could have tried to shoot their ship out of the sky, or just turned and shoved them off one of the walkways, or shot them on the paths while they were unsuspecting. People who were hoping to trade or enter a partnership usually went out of their way to show off and make everything seem perfect, not the other way around.</p>
<p>Finally, after maybe half an hour of walking, they arrived at some sort of mostly open, wide structure in what seemed to be the center of the small ‘village’ they were in. There were several large, round tables set up, about shoulder height for Tony—made sense, considering how large the Dekunt were. On one side of one of the tables were two high-seated chairs, clearly meant for Tony and Loki. They’d have to climb up the sides of them like ladders to get onto the seats.</p>
<p>They were invited to eat, and though Tony was slightly wary of what they’d bring out, the Dekunt claimed to have non-native food that was suitable for their guests. Tony and Loki climbed up into their chairs and sat with several of the Dekunt around one of the tables, chatting as they waited.</p>
<p>When the food was brought out, it certainly looked like something Tony could eat. Leafy greens that didn’t look like they came from anywhere on this planet, some kind of meat that hopefully wasn’t native, and some colorful… <em>something</em> that Tony couldn’t identify, but it did look good. He was used to unusual food by now, having lived on Tolsar for years. Every species there ate something different, and as long as it wasn’t going to poison him, Tony was always up for trying something new.</p>
<p>They even had dishes for Tony and Loki to use, which was thoughtful, seeing as the Dekunt themselves ate something spiky that looked native to the planet, which they picked up with their long, spindly fingers and just ate whole, or so it appeared. Tony tried not to stare, not wanting to be rude, but they certainly didn’t appear to chew or swallow like any humanoids. He couldn’t even quite tell where their mouths were without obviously staring.</p>
<p>Tony and Loki both loaded plates of food, but Tony kept up conversation as he went, mindful of Loki’s earlier warnings. He certainly hoped the Dekunt weren’t trying to poison them, but they could easily have accidentally made something that Tony couldn’t eat. Thankfully, it wasn’t a hard task to keep talking naturally for long enough that Loki ate first, since Tony was the one doing all the talking up to this point anyway.</p>
<p>Loki began eating before Tony, and by a subtle glance and nod of approval, Tony felt assured he could eat too. He did, with enthusiasm—long journeys on the ship often wore him out and he hadn’t eaten anything since at least yesterday, in Tolsaran time—and was sure to compliment the food, though the Dekunt didn’t really react.</p>
<p>Most of the way through the meal, the conversation turned back to the reason they were here in the first place. Loki had finished eating and was sitting beside Tony, telling a heavily edited version of the loss of Asgard to one of the Dekunt. Tony was finishing the last of his food and drink, listening attentively to another talk about their cooperation with a species called the Indular to fund evolutionary studies of their species.</p>
<p>“They had the tools to reconstruct ancient genetic material extrapolated from our own,” the Dekunt was saying.</p>
<p>“Reconstruct it physically? Like Jurassic Park?” Tony asked, before catching himself and shaking his head with a smile. “Sorry, bad reference—it’s an old, um, story from my home planet, about people who use preserved genetic material from ancient species to breed those animals again in the modern day.”</p>
<p>The Dekunt made a clicking sound. “No, not to recreate the ancient Dekunt. Just to reconstruct the genetic material and examine it. We wanted to know if there were genes that could be useful to us now that had mutated over time.”</p>
<p>Tony nodded. “Even on Earth we did something similar, I suppose. Not nearly as advanced, but we used genetics for engineering crops to make them produce more, resist damage by pests, things like that. Nothing next to the things I’ve seen on Tolsar, and elsewhere in the galaxy, of course.”</p>
<p>“We did discover a new building material with it,” the Dekunt said. “Would you like to see it?”</p>
<p>“Of course.” Tony hopped up and followed the Dekunt toward the back of the room. He glanced over at Loki, who was slowly meandering toward the doorway at the front with another Dekunt, looking genuinely engaged in the conversation. He heard something about Asgard and its “legendary collection” before his attention was drawn to where his own companion was leading him, around the corner and down a hall into another, smaller open room.</p>
<p>The walls here were decorated with strangely shaped structures Tony couldn’t make any sense of. Spiny and twisted, they did seem to be native to Dentrun, but they were too complicated to be the spikes on the structures outside, and they didn’t look like any part of the Dekunt. Of course, there must have been other species on Dentrun that Tony hadn’t seen yet. Maybe these were part of something from the surface. One of the terrifying creatures Loki talked about earlier.</p>
<p>“These were engineered with ancient genes we discovered upon the reconstruction,” the Dekunt said. “The material used to be a part of the ancient Dekunt.” Tony frowned, wondering what part, exactly. “Now, we use those genes to create large amounts of this material for construction. It is naturally resistant to effects of the atmosphere, weather, and sun, and won’t degrade over time, but it is as strong as any natural material on the planet. As hard as the stone on the surface, but it won’t splinter or crack with force.”</p>
<p>“Impressive,” Tony said, turning to look around the room at the different structures. Tolsar had similar materials and the capability to engineer them, but if he could get a sample of this one to study its properties, it might be useful to them. Something to consider in future negotiations.</p>
<p>He startled when he turned back and found the Dekunt that was with him much closer than they had been a moment before. He hadn’t heard any movement at all. “Are you feeling okay?” the Dekunt asked, and Tony frowned again.</p>
<p>He opened his mouth to answer, not sure what the question was all about, but closed it again when he suddenly staggered, off balance. There were long, cool fingers on his shoulder a moment later, supporting him. They withdrew when he found his balance again, but the Dekunt still hovered close, even the tone in the translator sounding worried. “What’s wrong?”</p>
<p>Tony wanted to answer, but he didn’t know what was wrong. He put a hand up to his head as a wave of dizziness overtook him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>First time writing Loki’s POV, so I hope I captured it okay. It’ll be in a few of the chapters in this story.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Loki was wary of the Dekunt. Of this entire mission, really, but he couldn’t deny its potential importance. The Dekunt were mostly a mystery, and if they really had something that could be of significant help—or hindrance—in the fight against Thanos, then Tolsar needed to know about it. </p><p>Any new planet or people was always a reason to be cautious, but for Loki, Dentrun was more than a mystery. It was a horror story told to children, a nightmare he’d never really shaken off even as he’d grown. The rumors that the inhabitants of Dentrun were immune to the effects of magic, at least his kind… they scared him. The Dekunt were bad enough, slippery and deceitful as they were, but the true horrors were the stories that lurked below, on the planet’s surface. The Kuntun. Enormous beasts, intelligent enough to track and catch prey, resistant to magic, lurking in the dark… </p><p>He’d always been seen as a weakling on Asgard, teased for his thin form and his use of magic to fight instead of brute strength. Frigga was good to him, she understood and encouraged him, but it was never quite enough to make up for Thor and his friends’ taunts.</p><p>Magic was Loki’s protection, both his offense and defense. He relied on it, that and his wits. A lot like Anthony, though Anthony, for a long time, had been alone in a world full of threats much stronger than himself, with nothing <em>but</em> his wits. They’d both used their intelligence to create defenses for themselves and to arm themselves. For Anthony, it was the metal suit he constantly adjusted and improved. For Loki, it was carefully cultivated magical abilities, ones he honed continuously even while he was belittled for them.</p><p>Now, after working extensively with the queen, Anthony was able to resonate and share some of her abilities. It wasn’t anything even close to Loki’s level of magical ability, but it was an added level of defense that didn’t require that he carried a physical object like one of his suits with him at all times. It surely made him feel more secure—Loki, personally, couldn’t imagine how Anthony could have survived before. He could acutely remember the helplessness of falling into the Void, floating, lost, unable to use his powers to help himself…</p><p>He masked a shudder and forced his mind away from that path. There lay only darkness and despair, and he needed his wits about him right now.</p><p>He wasn’t blind; he noticed when he and Anthony were subtly separated. He had no trouble keeping up the friendly façade and light conversation, though he took continuous note of his surroundings and the positions of the Dekunt. It was easy enough to talk about Asgard on the surface without actually revealing anything too important, though the topic did remain somewhat painful to him. It was his home, as much as he had sometimes resented the entire place.</p><p>If the Dekunt were after any of Asgard’s treasures, they were going to be sorely disappointed. Most of them had been lost when they’d deliberately set off Ragnarok. The few that had been saved were in Loki’s keeping, and no one but Loki knew it yet. He hadn’t revealed that fact even to his brother or his closest allies; he certainly wasn’t about to tell it to potential enemies.</p><p>Of course, physical treasures weren’t the only things of value. Asgard had many secrets, though Loki didn’t know all of them. Some of them he was perfectly willing to part with in the right circumstances. Things that were no longer that important, but might seem so to the right parties. Some of Asgard’s “secrets” were no longer of any importance whatsoever now that it was gone—but to keep a good air of mystery about it, there was no need to reveal that.</p><p>It was Anthony that Loki was truly worried about. He’d proven himself to be a strong man and a good leader, but he was still so new to the wider galaxy, and so painfully young. Humans lived such short lives to begin with, and though Anthony and his friend Rhodes often complained about being “old,” to beings like Loki and Thor, they were little more than children.</p><p>Anthony was accomplished at running his mouth—he’d certainly proven that back on Earth, when Loki had first met him—though he was also adept at reining it in when necessary. He could talk a lot without revealing anything of significance. The best distraction tactic, as Loki well knew. It was what he’d done back in his towering building on Earth to keep Loki’s attention while he waited for his suit to be ready.</p><p>Which was why it was disconcerting now to hear him speaking so freely. He was generally a more friendly and open person than Loki, no doubt, but he was also warier and more private than he had been years ago when they first encountered one another, apparently due to a number of great betrayals and terrible experiences on Earth. Loki had pressed Thor for details, but his brother refused to talk of Anthony’s personal life. Perhaps Loki’s experience with him wasn’t exactly representative of most people’s, being a former enemy and all, but something seemed off here.</p><p>It could have been magic, of a form Loki wasn’t familiar with. Loki didn’t detect any trace of magical influences here, but there was plenty he wasn’t attuned to. He’d dabbled in several kinds of magic in his lifetime, become quite proficient in one or two, but not even scratched the surface of what existed out there.</p><p>Plenty of fools with a minimal amount of talent thought that “magic” was an all-encompassing, singular term for some kind of universal ability, but anyone who’d studied the magical arts for any length of time knew that was a ridiculous notion. Magic was as diverse and sometimes disparate as the clashing dimensions that they all existed in. There were energy-based magics, like the Infinity Stones themselves and Amilie’s abilities. There were those that focused on life, thought, physical space, memory, motion, and thousands of other forms. Loki couldn’t even name a fraction of them. Even what Anthony and the humans called the “laws of physics” were rules governing some of the magics of the universe and its existence. </p><p>Loki had studied one of the more common types extensively on Asgard, and it was one of the few that Asgardians acknowledged and regularly interacted with. Spatial relations of the universe, movements of parallel and overlapping dimensions—it was what allowed Loki to travel seemingly without moving, to create images that interacted with others in his place, to change his form, and to take and store objects in pocket dimensions that could be accessed again only by him. It was one of the most widely studied forms, in part because it was the basis for many of the others.</p><p>He knew there were plenty more types of magic out there. Asgard had books on a few of them, though some of those books had been forbidden, and even Frigga had reacted badly when she’d caught him reading from one of them once. Some were banned because of the nature of their existence and what it implied about how they would be used—control of other living things, bending of wills, the sorts of things that took willpower that only came from sacrifice of the soul. Others were banned because they conflicted with the Asgardians’ ideals and, essentially, scared them, though they’d never have admitted that was the reason.</p><p>It was possible that Dentrun naturally exuded one of those other kinds of magic, one that clashed with Loki’s brand of magic, or worked on a completely separate level from it. Loki wouldn’t be able to sense their use of any of it—if it even was a conscious choice. Sometimes planets, objects, even living creatures naturally contained certain kinds of magic without realizing it, and not all of it was something even the most accomplished mage could distinguish. Loki knew those types were out there. He couldn’t really sense Amilie’s powers, after all, unless she chose to make them obvious, which she usually did for others’ comfort.</p><p>He would have thought he’d be able to tell if something was influencing Anthony, but perhaps not. It was also possible—and just as disconcerting—that a previously unknown or unexplored natural form of magic here wouldn’t be affected or repelled by any of Amilie’s protections. Anthony wore an amulet gifted to him by the queen which sensed negative energies and created a sort of shield around him. He’d mentioned something about a woman on Earth with the power to manipulate minds, fueled by the Mind Stone. But there were certainly magics that could bypass that amulet, and some of them might possibly be at work here.</p><p>Or it could just be that Anthony, so young and inexperienced in galactic politics, was nervous. Overcompensating for any perceived or potential rudeness by sharing too much. Or maybe Loki was underestimating how much he was willing to tell strangers if they were potential friends. Loki hadn’t had a lot of frank conversations with Anthony as of yet, but then, some of that distance between them was likely because Loki chose not to divulge much about himself. He could hardly expect Anthony to blindly take that first step without expecting anything in return.</p><p>He was thinking too much, not focusing on the current situation. He blamed that for his not noticing the problem sooner.</p><p>He’d been drawn out of the main room where they’d eaten. As they left, he saw Anthony being led into the back of that room to look at something. Loki noticed the separation, of course, but the two Dekunt walking with him around one of the outer pathways were questioning him about Asgard, and he assumed they were after information about its treasures, hoping his tongue might be looser when not in the presence of his king.</p><p>It took him longer than it should have to notice that they weren’t diving any deeper than the surface Loki willingly presented. No doubt he’d have made it difficult for them had they asked outright, but he was certainly willing to divulge more than he did at first, and they weren’t pushing at all. They hadn’t even gotten as far as asking him what had happened to the deepest vaults of Asgard, still just complimenting its store of treasures and remarking upon their centuries of secret collection.</p><p>He probed, testing, by offering up information about one of the ancient safeguards that was destroyed and the planets whose treasures it had protected. When his guides reacted with minimal interest, his suspicions were verified: they weren’t after him or anything from Asgard at all. This was about Anthony.</p><p>They’d been far too interested in Anthony’s resonance abilities earlier. Loki should have seen it coming, and in his mind he cursed his own stupidity and presumption. Their interest in harnessing great energies wasn’t just limited to the Infinity Stones, they’d said it themselves. In fact, they had very little chance of getting their hands on one of the Stones and they probably knew it. There was no trade, no amount of diplomacy that was ever going to get them to give up their energy-harnessing devices to Tolsar or any other planet for use against Thanos. The Dekunt’s only interest was in bringing those energies here for their own purposes.</p><p>He tilted his head, pretending not to notice his host’s lack of real interest in his information. “Tolsar sent recovery ships, actually, to Asgard after the fact. At the time, Prince Thor and I were occupied with tending to our people and establishing ourselves on the new planet. I have not asked King Anthony what was found there—we should do that.”</p><p>He turned as if to walk back, and with a subtle, graceful movement, one of the Dekunt was just barely blocking his path. Suddenly, their interest in his words was much greater, and his suspicions grew. What might they be getting Anthony to reveal while Loki was distracted, particularly if they did employ some kind of magic that he was unable to detect…</p><p>“Indeed, we should ask him in due course,” the Dekunt said, “but you must tell us more about this! The protections Asgard used, they must have been great to keep its artifacts secret for so long. We know that Asgard was under great protection from attacks, but they fought many wars in their time. They must have put great protection over their treasures. Surely, if they were still there, they would have been difficult to recover?”</p><p>So they were outright stopping him now. Loki could only hope that if he couldn’t sense their magic, perhaps they couldn’t sense his. Quietly, he drew up the power to create a double and an illusion cloaking himself and the area immediately surrounding him, even as he answered. “Oh, of course, there were multiple layers of protection over every artifact. Even I was not privy to many of them. Some things, if they do remain in the rubble of Asgard, are still hidden, possibly from everyone.” A blatant lie, but he would not be called on it. It didn’t matter a bit to him whether the Dekunt wasted their time sending ships to what remained of Asgard to search through the rubble for treasures they wouldn’t find. They’d probably done it already anyway, opportunistic scavengers that they were.</p><p>As he spoke, he edged away from the Dekunt and back toward the hall where he’d last seen Anthony. It was best to walk slowly and naturally, to allow the illusion to cloak him and the double to fully mimic what he’d be doing if he were still standing where it was.</p><p>He’d barely gotten a few feet, however, when the other Dekunt once again intercepted him. “Is there a particular hurry to speak to your King?” they said, and now Loki could detect the challenge in the words. </p><p>Loki cursed silently. He couldn’t tell from their tone whether his attempted deception was noted, or if they simply saw him moving, not the illusion he’d tried to create. Either way, their attempts to stop him were now obvious and he was ready to fight to get away from them. If they thought he wouldn’t compromise diplomacy to get out, they were very wrong.</p><p>He had to assume, at least, that they couldn’t just see through all of his passive magic—otherwise they’d surely have asked about some of the <em>very interesting</em> treasures he had hidden away in pocket dimensions which traveled with him everywhere he went. He also kept an assortment of weaponry in similar passive states—better to always be armed, even if not visibly. Having to take a second or two to retrieve something magically was better than not having it at all.</p><p>He’d only keep the element of surprise by attacking first, and fast, before they understood that he was no longer interested in keeping up the polite façade. A very small voice in his head told him that he might be overreacting—invasive questioning and possible passive magic was hardly enough to warrant a physical attack, and he wouldn’t remain an advisor to the queen much longer if he reacted like this to any tense situation. That voice was easily overridden by instinct, however, and his instincts were telling him that this was not good. He hadn’t survived as long as he had, through everything he had, by being passive and waiting for others to strike.</p><p>He was already moving by the time he’d finished summoning two of his favorite knives from where they usually resided. They were in his hands by the time he’d finished the turn, but he used the first second after retrieving them to wave over one of the Dekunt, creating a solid energy barrier, and then jerk downward to pull them to the ground and trap them even as he leapt up onto the back of the second.</p><p>Their immediate response put any lingering unease about attacking them to rest. They were obviously expecting it. The one he’d pulled to the ground with magic was pushing against the barrier, and Loki could feel an unusually large drain on the energy he was expending to keep it down. The second was reaching back with too many spiny limbs to grab at Loki where he’d jumped onto what constituted its back, but he was already severing two of the limbs in a swift movement.</p><p>He didn’t know enough about the Dekunt to be sure of how to incapacitate or kill them quickly. The first was already pushing back too hard against his barrier—he needed this to be a quick and decisive fight. They couldn’t be allowed the time to raise an alarm.</p><p>He made a quick decision, much as he didn’t want to do it—it would mean expending a lot more energy at once than he was comfortable with, for only two enemies. He concentrated hard on the barrier keeping the first one down and it changed into a portal, sweeping down and catching the Dekunt underneath it, pulling it into the next dimension over. Not one of Loki’s, and not one he had much control over, but far enough removed that the Dekunt’s physical presence would be too insubstantial in this dimension to do him any harm.</p><p>The one he was clinging to had managed to get hold of him with two more of its arms—they pinched painfully into his flesh, drawing blood—and threw him forward, down to the ground where the other one had been a moment before. This was what Loki wanted, however, and he quickly flipped to the other side of the portal, pulling it up with a wave of his hand and allowing it to overcome the second Dekunt. </p><p>The moment the second Dekunt was enclosed by the portal, Loki forced it closed. It took more energy than he wanted to admit, to force two unwilling, unpredictable living things into the next dimension over and keep them there while they actively fought back. The universe didn’t like things to be off like that. He turned to reopen the portal where he wanted, to correct the imbalance before it backfired on him, but he was distracted by a sharp pain in his leg.</p><p>The arms he’d severed from one of the Dekunt were moving on their own. One was wrapping around one of his ankles as though to yank him off his feet, and the other had stabbed a claw-like finger into his other leg. The severed end of that one came up when he reached down to pull it out, whipping toward his face and wrapping around his arm. The ichor it dripped from the cut end burned his skin.</p><p>He wrestled with it for a moment before getting a decent enough grip to yank it out of his leg and fling it over the edge of the walkway, hopefully all the way down to the surface below. He didn’t have even a split second to celebrate its riddance, however, as he was bodily pulled the moment he flung the first limb. He staggered to keep his balance and looked down at the second limb, which had wrapped around his ankle. The cut end of that one had curled around the edge of the walkway for leverage and was contracting like a snake, trying to pull him off his feet.</p><p>He lunged down, knives back in his hands, and severed the limb once more in the middle. He quickly unwound the fingers from his ankle before they could pierce his skin like the other and threw that half of it over the edge like the first one. The other half curled away from where it was now severed at both ends, wriggling uselessly, and Loki straightened with a snarl and kicked it over the edge as well.</p><p>There was a pull at a deep part of him not a moment later. The two Dekunt were pushing at the boundaries of the dimension they’d been forced into, and they must have more innate clashing magical ability than Loki had thought, because it was draining him far faster than it should. He already felt as though he’d been battling ten foes rather than two. Quickly, he waved a hand below him and reopened the portal a few feet below the bottom of the walkway. He sensed the two Dekunt, disoriented by the sudden change, falling out of it and down the way the two severed limbs had gone. Loki hoped the fall would kill them, or at the very least keep them from coming up and alerting the others before he had retrieved Anthony and left this forsaken planet.</p><p>Of course, there was a chance the Dekunt had some sort of system in place to know these things anyway, and reinforcements could be pouring in any minute. He needed to move quickly.</p><p>Thankfully, he hadn’t been drawn too far from the open area where they’d eaten. He snuck around the corner, not bothering to throw an illusion over himself since the Dekunt seemed immune to them, only to find the place empty. He only had a second to be suspicious of it, however, as the sounds of a struggle echoed from the back.</p><p>Loki hurried across the room, alert for traps or the sounds of movement from behind him. He followed a short hallway in the back of the room to another, slightly smaller room. The walls were covered in strange formations of some kind, hung up like trophies, and in the center, Anthony was on the floor surrounded by four Dekunt, one holding his arms down beside his head while he kicked out at the others.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am once again not dead, I do realize I’m starting a pattern of saying that with every chapter that has a crazy long time between updates. Don’t expect anything better, I’m an actual doctor now and have real responsibilities that currently take up the vast majority of my time (sobs). But huge thank you to anyone who follows along with the stories anyway, I seriously commend you.</p>
<p>I apologize in advance that a lot of this relatively short chapter is action (and some of the next one will be too). I’m not particularly fond of writing straight up action sequences and I’m not sure how well it turned out, but it didn’t seem right to just gloss over it all.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Loki reacted instinctively, keeping what little of the element of surprise he had. Even as he dashed around the corner, it seemed the Dekunt were too busy with Anthony to notice him for a few seconds, and he used that advantage. A small part of him noted with pride that Anthony was not making it easy for them, despite being so much smaller and generally weaker. </p>
<p>It took some skill to make a magical double substantial enough to hold a weapon, but Loki was willing to expend that energy in this case. He needed to attack from multiple points at once, and he wouldn’t have long to do it before they noticed him and turned. In the blink of an eye, he was running forward, leaping onto the back of the closest Dekunt, while two identical clones approached two of the others from the sides, driving long knives into their backs.</p>
<p>There was an echoing, high-pitched whistle that nearly drove Loki to instinctively jerk his head back, away from the noise. It must have been a sound of pain in the native voices of the Dekunt, perhaps meant to be loud and piercing enough to stun any attacker. Loki drove through the discomfort, however, to repeat the same tactic he’d used outside, severing two of the limbs from the Dekunt whose back he’d jumped onto, then cutting the hands from the other two arms which reached back for him, trying to throw him off.</p>
<p>It wasn’t enough to unbalance the Dekunt, not with its four legs supporting it, but it had to rear back, away from Anthony, to try to turn and confront Loki, and that was what he wanted. As he jumped from its back to the floor, he dropped the daggers he’d just used, snapping his fingers instead. The daggers disappeared back to the pocket dimension where he usually kept them, and in turn, the knives that his doubles had stabbed into the middle segments of two of the other Dekunt appeared in his hands. He wasn’t willing to give them weapons to use against him or Anthony, and he wasn’t pouring enough energy into the clones for them to remain physically present and fight; even as he took back the knives, the clones were disappearing as the two Dekunt they’d attacked turned and struck out at them.</p>
<p>The first Dekunt Loki had attacked, now minus half of its limbs, was twisting to face him, hissing, rearing back as if to strike with the deadly-looking claws on the end of two of those long legs. Not giving it the chance, Loki rushed forward into a graceful roll underneath the Dekunt, reaching out as he went with the long knives, slashing at the insides of those legs. The Dekunt gave another piercing scream and thudded to the ground just behind Loki as he rolled underneath it.</p>
<p>As he came up out of the roll, Loki jumped nimbly to one side to avoid the severed limbs, not about to make the same mistake twice. He had to bring the knives up across his head a second later as one of the other Dekunt slashed downward at him with one of the pointed structures from the walls.</p>
<p>Summoning another burst of energy, Loki used magic to give himself a sudden boost in strength, shoving back against the improvised weapon until the Dekunt was forced to take a step backward to avoid overbalancing. Loki let go at that moment, causing the Dekunt to stumble, and swung hard enough with the long knives to sever the front two legs. When it started to topple toward him, he banished one of his knives and used the free hand to take a tight hold of one of the Dekunt’s arms, severing it neatly with the other knife.</p>
<p>Loki spun, the severed Dekunt arm in one hand and his remaining knife in the other, just in time to meet the incoming body of the third Dekunt, which was now sporting a stab wound from the very same knife he held. It screamed like its fellows as it dodged the sharp claw at the end of the arm Loki swung, only to jerk right into the knife. Loki dropped the arm, using both hands on the knife and a considerable amount of his strength to force it through the hard, shell-like outside of the Dekunt—whether it was an exoskeleton of sorts or a natural armor, Loki didn’t know or particularly care, he only cared that when he used the knife to tear it open from end to end, the Dekunt collapsed and didn’t get back up.</p>
<p>Immediately, Loki turned, yanking his knife out of the downed Dekunt, and stabbed it down into the head of the first Dekunt, which was still struggling to get back to its feet with only two intact limbs. It slumped back to the ground and didn’t move, and not wasting a second, Loki threw the knife, magic aiding his aim and force, straight into the head of the second Dekunt, which was recovering from having three of its limbs severed and already reaching for him.</p>
<p>He allowed himself just a moment to draw in air and banish the knife, instead retrieving his preferred daggers, before turning to take care of the last Dekunt, the one that had been holding Anthony’s arms down when he’d arrived in the room.</p>
<p>As he turned to face them, however, he could see that the Dekunt in question was struggling between holding down a squirming Anthony and looking up to follow the fight between Loki and the others. As Loki retrieved his daggers and started toward it, Anthony took the moment of its distraction as an opportunity to twist and kick his legs out, sweeping two of the Dekunt’s legs from underneath it and unbalancing it.</p>
<p>Loki pressed the advantage, leaping easily onto its back. It was still preoccupied with holding Anthony down rather than reaching for Loki, and so Loki was free and clear to stab both daggers down into its head like the others. Loki gave it a shove as he jumped down so that it collapsed to the side rather than directly onto Anthony.</p>
<p>Loki panted for a moment as the fight ended and his body tingled with the aftermath of so much magic use in a short time. His eyes swept over the fallen Dekunt, wondering how far behind reinforcements were—surely others, if they didn’t already know exactly what had happened here, would soon be coming to check on them.</p>
<p>His musing was interrupted by a groan from the floor, and he quickly turned to see Anthony pushing himself up with what looked like entirely too much effort. He stepped gingerly past several severed limbs, watching them warily, and by the time he got to Anthony’s side, he’d climbed his way to his feet.</p>
<p>Anthony looked terrible, significantly paler than usual and swaying on his feet. Anger was painted on his face, and as Loki reached out and grabbed his arm to steady him, he glared at the fallen Dekunt.</p>
<p>“What happened?” Loki asked.</p>
<p>Anthony put a hand up to his head for a moment, closing his eyes and swaying worse than before, but then forced his eyes open and steadied. “Bastards. Something’s up… I feel… not good. I got dizzy, and they acted like they wanted to help, like they were concerned about me. But then I fell, and I was just trying to rest, keep my eyes closed so I didn’t throw up, and I heard them talking about… studying me. They must have thought I was out. They wanted to figure out… resonance. They were talking about locking me up and luring Amilie here.”</p>
<p>The way Anthony was panting for breath and pausing in the middle of sentences, like he couldn’t summon enough energy to force them out, wasn’t good. Loki frowned, passing a hand in front of Anthony’s chest, reaching out with a simple sensing spell. A brief moment later, he snapped the connection, having discovered two disturbing things.</p>
<p>The first was one he expected: Anthony was being affected by something, draining his energy, both physically and metaphysically. It could have been any number of things; something about the natural environment here, the food they were given by the Dekunt, something they did to him during his and Loki’s separation, maybe a combination of any of those or others.</p>
<p>The second concerning thing was what really set panic into Loki’s heart. In the rush of fighting the Dekunt, he’d simply taken the drain on his energy as a given, but the relative calm of the moment when he reached out with a sensing spell made it clear: his energy was being drained as well, every time he used magic. Not only were the inhabitants of this planet now their enemies, but they were resistant to most of Loki’s abilities, and even those that could help him were draining him faster than it was worth it to use them.</p>
<p>Anthony shook his head like he was clearing it, though from the way he then reached out to grab Loki’s shoulder for support, it had the opposite effect. “We need to… get the hell out of here,” he gritted out.</p>
<p>Loki was certainly relieved by that pronouncement. It was the smart choice, of course, but he’d been slightly worried that Anthony would feel the need to stay and investigate. That, or attack the Dekunt in turn, though that would have been foolish—even Thor, in his most youthful and idiotic days, likely wouldn’t have done that.</p>
<p>Still, Loki wasn’t sure how clearly Anthony was thinking, impaired as he was by whatever was draining him. It was, technically, Loki’s job as an advisor to make sure Anthony was making the best decisions. Damn himself, Loki thought, for taking a respectable, responsible position.</p>
<p>“We don’t need to know anything more about that device they showed us before we leave?”</p>
<p>Anthony frowned, but shook his head gingerly, clearly wary of making himself dizzy again. “We don’t know any less now than if they hadn’t chosen to contact us at all. They said they haven’t been able to study an Infinity Stone, and they were trying to draw us in, to keep me here. They’d have told us if they had one, to keep our attention.”</p>
<p>“Unless they do have one, and they were planning to use its power to subdue you,” Loki countered.</p>
<p>“Fuck.” Anthony shook his head. “Either way, we’re not dealing with it today. We’d be hard pressed to deal with an Infinity Stone even if they were friendly and willing to give it to us. I’d be calling Amilie in. We’re definitely not dealing with one, alone, if it’s being protected by people who want to kill us <em>and</em> we’re pretty much unarmed.”</p>
<p>Loki agreed with the assessment. “Back to the ship, then.”</p>
<p>Anthony turned, letting go of Loki, and they started to make their way out of the room. “Yeah. I hope you remember the way pretty well, because I—” after only a few steps, Anthony stumbled and had to take hold of Loki’s arm again. “<em>Shit</em>, I’m dizzy. What the fuck did they do to me?”</p>
<p>Loki frowned, keeping a steady hold on Anthony’s arm as he pushed ahead, leading them out of the room. “Did they do something after we were separated?”</p>
<p>Loki peered around each corner as they made their way back into the large, open room where they’d eaten, on the lookout for potential attacks, expecting more Dekunt to descend on them any moment. Each time the next hallway or corner was clear, it only increased his tension.</p>
<p>“I don’t think so,” Anthony said behind him, dropping his voice as they progressed. “I didn’t feel anything, and they never touched me… I started feeling dizzy just after we went in that back room. And they asked me if I was okay before it happened, like they knew what was coming.”</p>
<p>“It may have been the food,” Loki said, pulling Anthony around another corner and into the open dining area. Thankfully, it still appeared to be empty, but Loki was sure it wouldn’t be for long. Anthony had stopped, looking around the room with a frown, and Loki gave his arm a tug. “We need to move faster. They may know what happened already, and no doubt this time they’ll come back armed.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I know. Damn.” Anthony pushed forward, walking faster, though Loki couldn’t help but notice that he was gripping his arm harder than before, leaning slightly more of his weight into Loki’s side. “And really, the food? But you ate it too, and you’re fine!”</p>
<p>Loki shook his head. “I’m not—every time I use magic, it’s draining me much faster than it should.” Realizing Anthony wasn’t there for his initial fight, he added, “and they are resistant to magic. The rumors were true. I tried to create an illusion to escape from them once I realized they were after you, but they saw through it.”</p>
<p>Anthony gave a strained smile at that. “Aw, you fought them just to come to my rescue?”</p>
<p>Loki didn’t bother answering, knowing it was just an attempt at deflection. “It might be something else, I can’t be sure. There could be innate magics on this planet that I don’t understand.”</p>
<p>They stopped for a moment to allow Loki to peer around the corner of the large opening into the dining area. They’d crossed the room and now had to walk out onto the open paths, which increased Loki’s tension significantly; he didn’t want to walk out in the open on those paths where there were no rails or guards to keep from falling over the edges, gripping an unsteady Anthony. They had no choice, however.</p>
<p>Once Loki confirmed that it was clear and moved them swiftly out into the open, Anthony spoke up again, voice low, as they hurried across the path. “Might explain… why they’re so keen on studying magic here.”</p>
<p>That wasn’t necessarily true, but Loki wasn’t going to waste the breath explaining the idea of natural magics that people might not even be aware of. Not now, when they were trying to move swiftly and quietly across the paths and Anthony was leaning more of his weight on Loki every minute.</p>
<p>They made it over their current path in a few minutes, with no sign of the Dekunt, no sounds echoing through the air, nothing that would indicate an alarm had been raised. It set all of Loki’s internal alarms off—he didn’t believe for one moment that the Dekunt didn’t already know what they’d done. Perhaps they were simply gathering whatever weaponry they planned to use to blast away the two pesky fools currently striding across their homeworld.</p>
<p>Evidently Anthony felt the same, even impaired as he was. “Too… quiet,” he said, just as the path curved and they came within sight of another cluster of buildings. </p>
<p>Loki nodded and looked around as they approached the low structures. Around the side of them, across more of the twisting paths and between the intimidating spikes supporting them, Loki could just barely see a bright silver gleam. “There,” he said, nudging Anthony until he looked in that direction.</p>
<p>“They’ll likely have it guarded,” Loki warned as Anthony spotted the ship. The Dekunt wouldn’t be able to get in—the ship had too many innate defense mechanisms for that—but they could certainly post guards around the only viable method of escape, and they’d be foolish not to.</p>
<p>Loki did worry that they would find the one way to get into the Tolsaran ship, which was brute force. It wasn’t so much worry about looting or salvaging technology inside the ship, but the likelihood that the amount of force and destruction required to break into the ship would render it inoperable, and destroy the only real chance Loki and Anthony had of getting off this planet.</p>
<p>“We’ll have to worry about that… when we get there,” Anthony said. They were stopped on the path just outside one of the structures, and when Anthony nudged Loki, he shook his head.</p>
<p>“We won’t be able to get past any more than a few of them. We barely succeeded in fighting them off before, and that was when they weren’t expecting it. We may need to try to find weapons of some sort before we get to the ship. The guards will be armed.” It was the logical way of dealing with them, one Loki had no doubt the Dekunt would employ: cut off their means of escape, then worry about tracking them down once it was sure they wouldn’t be sneaking away. It would explain why they had yet to meet any more Dekunt on the paths.</p>
<p>Anthony shook his head. “They won’t have left anything out for us to find. Even if they didn’t plan on attacking us when we first showed up, this is just the area for visitors. They wouldn’t keep anything out here that they didn’t want us to know about.”</p>
<p>Loki stifled a frustrated noise, knowing Anthony was right. Anthony was weakening further, Loki’s magic was mostly useless, and he kept only an assortment of bladed weapons within reach in his pocket dimensions; he was never a large-scale weapon type of person, nor one to hold a gun. Perhaps he ought to rethink that.</p>
<p>Any thought of potential strategies against a few guards, however, were banished a moment later when Anthony jerked against him with a low sound of shock. “Oh no… <em>shit</em>.”</p>
<p>Loki looked over and nearly felt his heart fall out through his feet. The gleam of silver they could see through the structures around them was moving, and Loki knew the ship wasn’t being piloted. As he’d thought, they were employing brute force to cut off their prey’s means of escape.</p>
<p>And few times had Loki felt more like prey than he did in that moment, when he watched the glimpses of their silver ship through the spikes as it was pushed off the edge of the landing platform and down into the murky darkness far below.</p>
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